Link-bending machine.



No. 670,337. Patented Mar. I9, 1901. E. ATTwoon.

LINK BENDING MACHINE.

(Application filed Nov. 13, 1900'} (No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet L dwm Patented Mar. I9, I90].

E. ATTWDOD. LINK BENDING MACHINE.

, (Application filed NQV. 13,1900.)

3 Sheets-Sheet 2.

(No Model.)

No. 670,337 Patented Mar. l9, 19m.

E. ATTWOOD. LINK BENDING MACHINE.

(Applicafion filed Nov. 13, 1900.) 7 (N Modeh) 3 Sheets-$heet 3.

THEYKORRIS #:Tzns co. PHOTIOLITHO WASHINGTON, 0v 0.

ATE 11* ELI ATTWOOD, OF LEBANON, PENNSYLVANIA;

LiNK-BENDING MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 670,337, dated March 19, 1901 Application filed November 13, 1900. Serial No. 86,423. (No model.)

To all whom it iitay concern.-

Be it known that I, ELI ATTWOOD, a citizen of the United States, residing at Lebanon, in the county of Lebanon, State of Pennsyl- Vania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Link-Bending Machines, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to machines for bending iron rods or other metal rods into the form of links, &c., which are subsequently welded into links or shapes or into chains, and more particularly to that class of machines adapted for operation upon heavy rods to form links, 850., of a larger and heavier type. In old machines of this kind with which I am familiar the mandrel-shaft has been driven directly by a large fly-wheel operated by a very heavy belt, requiring a great deal of power to operate it, so that it often happens, if the iron is not heated to the proper degree, that the belt will slip off when the link is half bent, thereby necessitating reheating. Furthermore, in this old machine two men are required to operate it, one to lift the bars of iron and insert the ends into the proper position in respect to the mandrel and follower, while another is required to throw the machine into and out of gear, so as to start the machine at the beginning of a bending operation and stop it when the machine has completed a bending operation. With this old type of machine, operating in the manner described, after the formation of a link the machine continues to operate until stopped by the attendant, and in order to throw it out of gear the attendant must stand in front of the machine, facing the hot iron.

It is one object of my improvement to provide such a machine with mechanism which will enable one man to feed. the rods to the machine and to throw the machine into and out of operation at will, thus dispensing with one operator heretofore necessary, and to provide the machine with automatic clutch mechanism which will permit the machine to make one revolution in order to bend the link or other shape and then automatically stop the said machine, in which position it remains until the operator again manipulates the mechanism controlling the clutch device.

It is my further object to improve the driv ing mechanism so that considerable increase of power is applied to the mandrel-shaft, so as to insure the finishing of a link, even if it should become somewhat cold during the bending operation.

WVith these and other objects in view my invention consists in the novel construction and details thereof, as hereinafter described with reference to the accompanying drawings, and more particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a side elevation of a machine embodying my improvements. Fig. 2 is a top plan view thereof. Fig. 3 is an enlarged vertical sectional elevation. Fig. 4 is a sectional detail of the clutch mechanism. Fig. 5 is a side view of the mandrel. Fig. 6 is a face view thereof.

Referring now to the drawings, in which the same reference characters relate to the same or corresponding parts in all the views, the numeral 1 indicates the bed or base plate of the machine, which is preferably a heavy casting, from each end of which extends vertically an end frame 2, which end frames form, with the bedplate, the supporting structure of the machine, the upper ends of said end plates being connected bytie-rods 3. The mandrel-shaft etis rotatably mounted in suitable bearings in the end frames 2 and is provided at one end with a spur-gear drivingwheel 8, loosely mounted thereon, said spurgear being clutched to and released from said driving-shaft by the clutch mechanism hereinafter described. This spur-gear 8 meshes with a driving-pinion 7, secured to the driving-shaft 5, mounted in suitable bearings on the end frames 2 and driven by the drivingwheel pulley 6, operated by a belt from any suitable power-driven shaft. The other end of the mandrel-shaft is provided with a mandrel-head 25, rigidly secured thereto, and on which head is mounted the'mandrel, consisting of a two-part structure 26 and 27, each of said parts or sections being provided with a groove 33, in which the rod or bar is inserted for bending. The two sections 26 and 27 are mounted upon the mandrel-head by suitable bolts 30, passing through flanges 50 and 51 of said sections, one section, as 26, being secured to said head and the other section,as 27, being movable. The section 27 is provided with a handle 49, fitted to a hole 29, by which said section may be removed from its position on the mandrel-head, to permit the withdrawal of the link, and also when it is desired to change the size or form of the link to be bent to permit a mandrel-section of different form being substituted in its place in such case. The two mandrel-sections, it will be observed, are fitted to each other by a tongue-andgroove joint 28, which preferably extends at an angle to the horizontal, as shown in Figs. 1, 5, and 6. The groove 33 on each of the sections 26 and 27 is so arranged that in the operation of bending the link will be bentin a slightly-spiral form, the two ends to be welded being brought into close proximity to each other, but in different planes, the section 26 having its inclined face 32 terminating in an abutment 31, in line with which one end of the link will bear, the inclined face of the other section 27 being a continuation of the face 32, whereby the two ends of the link when bent will lie in different planes.

In order to hold the link into close contact with the peripheral surface of the mandrel and to cause the metal to follow the contour of the mandrel as the latter revolves, I employ a follower 22, which is, as shown in the drawings, a grooved wheel, the groove of which is adapted to receive the rod or bar and to keep the same in contact with the revolving mandrel. This grooved follower is mounted upon a shaft 52, carried by an arm 14, which is pivotally supported at one end by a bolt 19, supported by clam ping-blocks 20 and 21, engaging the tie-rods 3 at the top of the machine.

In order to keep the grooved follower pressed into contact with the working face of the mandrel and at the same time to permit itto yield in the direction of the length of its shaft as the difierent portions of the inclined face of the mandrel come into contact with said follower, I mount a strong spiral spring 23 between the shoulderor end 24 at the end of the shaft and the follower. In order to cause the follower to maintain its contact with the mandrel, which, as shown in the drawings, is designed to bend a link of elongated form approximating an ellipse, I provide a positivelyoperating eccentric mechanism for moving the arm 14 and the shaft 52, carried thereby, in proper relation with the mandrel.

Mounted upon acounter-shaft 11 is a pinion 10, driven by a spur-gear 9, fixed to and rotating with the mandrel-shaft 4, and secured to this counter-shaft 11 is an eccentric 12, to which eccentric is fitted an eccentric-strap composed of two sections 13, said sections being provided with suitable bosses through which pass rods 16, having a screw-threaded crops? attachment at their upper ends to a cross piece or bar 15, to which is pivotally connected a screw threaded bolt 17, passing through an arm 14 and adjustably secured to said arm by suitable nuts 53. By this construction it will be seen that as the mandrel revolves the gear 9 will, through the medium of the pinion 10, drive the counter-shaft 1l,on which the eccentric 12 is mounted, and as it rotates with the shaft its strap will be moved according to the degree of eccentricity of the eccentric in such manner as to raise and lower the arm 14, and thereby cause the follower 22 to maintain its contact with the bar or rod that is being bent around the mandrel and to press said bar into contact with the bending-surface of the mandrel.

In order to stop and start the machine, I provide a clutch mechanism, which is shown in Figs. 1, 2, and 4. Referring to these figures, it will be seen that the numeral 34 indicates a rock-shaft supported in suitable bearings below the mandrel in front of the machine, from which rock-shaft projects one or more treadles 35, preferably one oneach side of the mandrel. From this rock-shaft extends an arm 47, which is connected by a 'link 36 to an arm 37 on a rock-shaft 38 at the rear of the machine and from which rockshaft extends an arm 39, terminating in a yoke 40, preferably provided with antifriction-rolls 41, which engage the grooved collar 42, slidably mounted on the mandrel-shaft. A spring 54 connects the arm 47 with the fixed frame and normally tends to move the said arm so as to cause the clutch mechanism to disengage the loose gear 8 from the shaft. This grooved collar 42 is provided with a flanged extension 43, in the slots of which engage grooved ends of bolts 48, which pass through holes in the driving spur-gear 8 and are adapted to come into contact with and engage opposite sides of square-headed bolts 46, rigidly mounted in a disk 45, splined to the shaft 4, so as to rotate with said shaft. By this construction it will be observed that when the treadle 35 is pressed down it will, through the medium of the arm 47, link 36, arm 37, shaft 38, the arm 39, and yoke 40, cause the sliding collar 42 to move longitudinally of the shaft 4, and thereby carrying the ends of the bolts 48 in positionfor engagement with the square-headed bolts or pins 46, and hence as the spur-gear 8 is continuously rotated by the pinion 7 the moment the pins 48 and the pins 46 come into engagement the disk 45 will be turned, and with it the shaft 4.

When the rod or bar is inserted into the passage formed by the two grooves of the follower 22 and the mandrel, the operator presses down upon the treadle in the manner indicated, and the shaft 4 is then caused to make one revolution, at the end of which the link will be bent into proper shape, and at the completion of this operation the clutch 42 will IIO be moved in the opposite direction by means of the spring 5-1, which when released from the opposing action of the operator on the treadle 35 will so move the arm 47 as to effect the proper movement of the collar 42, and thus automatically stop the machine.

I claim as my invention 1. In a link-bending machine, the combination of a mandrelshaft carrying a mandrel around which the rod or bar is bent into shape, a gear loosely mou nted on said shaft,a drivi ugshafthaving a pinion thereon meshing with said gear, a follower operating to bend the rod orbar into shape around the mandrel, means for positively moving the follower toward the peripheral surface of the mandrel as the latter revolves, and a clutch mechanism between the loose gear and the mandrel-shaft for starting and stopping the machine,substantially as described.

2. In a linkbending machine, the combination of the mandrel-shaft carryinga mandrel around which the rod or bar is bent into shape, a gear loosely mounted on said mandrel-shaft, a driving-shaft having a pinion thereon meshing with the said loose gear, a clutch mechanism between the mandrel-shaft and the loose gear thereon, whereby the said mandrel-shaft may be started and stopped, an arm pivotally supported on the fixed frame of the machine, a follower carried by said arm and adapted to engage the bar and press it into contact with the mandrel, and connections between the mandrel-shaft and the said arm for positively moving it from and toward the mandrel-shaft, so that the follower may positively act to bend the rod or bar into shape around said mandrel, substantially as described.

3. In a link-bending machine, the combination of a mandrel-shaft, a gear loosely mounted on said shaft, a mandrel carried by said shaft, a driving-shaft having a pinion thereon meshing with the loose gear on the mandrel-shaft, a clutch mechanism between the loose gear and the mandrel-shaft under control of the operator for starting the machine and adapted to automatically release the loose gear from the mandrel-shaft after one revolution thereof, and a follower for bending the rod or bar into shape around the mandrel, substantially as described.

4:. In a link-bending machine, the combination of a mandrel-shaft, a loose gear on said shaft, a driving-shaft having a pinion thereon in mesh with said loose gear, clutch mechanism between the said loose gear and the mandrel-shaft under the control of the operator and adapted to automatically stop the machine after each revolution of the mandrelshaft, a follower and connections between the follower and mandrel-shaft for causing the said follower to move toward and from the mandrel-shaft, whereby the follower may bend the rod or bar into shape around the mandrel, and means for permitting longitudinal movement of the follower with respect to the said mandrel-shaft, substantially as described.

5. In a link-bending machine, the combination of a mandrel-shaft, a mandrel carried thereon, a follower arranged to bend a rod or bar into shape around the mandrel, connections between the follower and the mandrelshaft for causing the follower to move toward and from, the mandrel-shaft, whereby the rod or bar is bent into shape around the mandrel as the latter rotates, a driving means loosely engaging the mandrel-shaft, and a clutch mechanism under the control of the operator, adapted to connect the driving means with the mandrel-shaft and causing the same to rotate, and constructed to automatically release said driving means from the mandrel-shaft after one revolution thereof, substantially as described.

6. In a link-bending machine, the combination of a mandrel -shaft, a mandrel carried thereby, a loose gear on said mandrel-shaft, a driving-shaft having a pinion thereon in mesh with the said loose gear, a clutch device for connecting said loose gear to, and disconnecting it from, the mandrel-shaft, an arm pivotally supported upon the fixed frame of the machine, a follower carried by said arm and adapted to bend the rod or barinto shape around the mandrel, a counter-shaft having an eccentric thereon, a connection between said eccentric and the mandrel-shaft,and connections between the counter-shaft and the mandrel-shaft, whereby the arm carrying the follower is caused to move toward and from the mandrel-shaft,substantially as described.

7. In a link-bending machine, the combina tion with the mandrel-shaft, driving means loosely engaging said mandrel-shaft,of a mandrel consisting of two sections, mounted upon a head carried by the shaft, and having a groove in which the rod or bar is inserted for bending, and an inclined surface to cause the end of the link, when bent, to lie in different planes, and a follower adapted to bend the rod into shape around the mandrel, and a clutch mechanism under the control of the operator, adapted to connect the driving means with the mandrel-shaft, for causing same to rotate, and constructed to release said driving means from the mandrel-shaft, after one revolution thereof, substantially as described.

8. In a link-bending machine, the combination of the mandrel-shaft, the driving means loosely engaging the mandrel-shaft, of a mandrel consisting of two sections united by a tongue-and-groove joint, and mounted upon a head carried by the shaft, and provided with a groove for the insertioii of the end of the rod or bar to be bent, and an inclined surface to cause the end of the link, when bent, to lie in different planes,a follower adapted to bend the rod or bar into shape around the mandrel, and a clutch mechanism under the control of the operator, adapted to connect the driving name to this specification in the presence of means with the mandrel-shaft for causing the two subscribing witnesses.

same to rotate and constructed to release said EI I ATTWOOD driving means from the mandrel-shaft after J 5 one revolution thereof, substantially as de- Witnesses:

scribed. Jos. W. BRAMWELL,

In testimony whereof I have signed my GEO. E. HOLLY. 

